Press Releases

15 Jan 2020 Surgeons should explain the options and risks to patients, so they can weigh them up and decide what the best course of action is for them.

09 Jan 2020 Nearly eight in ten surgeons said there were not enough hospital beds to operate on patients.

13 Dec 2019 Commenting on new waiting times statistics published by NHS England today, Sue Hill, Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons, urged the new government to enact the promises made during the election to the NHS.

13 Nov 2019 Medical experts should undergo appropriate medico-legal training before they appear as an expert witness, the Royal College of Surgeons of England advises in new guidance published today. The Surgeon as an Expert Witness - A Guide to Good Practice’ sets out the role a surgeon should play when acting as an expert witness in civil1, criminal 2 and coroners’3 cases.

29 Oct 2019 The RCS is urging Boris Johnson to follow through on a pledge he made last summer to resolve the NHS pensions ‘tax trap’, before winter arrives. Amid record waiting times, the RCS warns that patients will face even longer waits this winter if the Government doesn’t take swift action. 69% of consultant surgeons have reduced the amount of time they have spent working in the NHS as a direct result of changes to pension taxation rules.

18 Oct 2019 A quality improvement (QI) collaborative setup by the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS) has significantly improved early surgery rates for patients with gallstone-related conditions according to a study published in BJS Open this week. Gallstone-related conditions can be very painful, reducing quality of life for patients awaiting surgery, and have the potential to lead to serious complications, such as pancreatitis. Removal of the gallbladder and stones, an operation called a cholecystectomy, soon after diagnosis, is the recommend treatment for symptomatic patients.

16 Oct 2019 Plastic surgeons from the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS) and the British Burn Association are warning that children can face years of gruelling operations and treatment following preventable burns or scalds, such as from hot tea or coffee spillages. New figures from the International Burn Injury Database (iBID) show there were 35,007 child admissions to designated specialised burn services in England and Wales in the past five years (2014-2018).

10 Oct 2019 Professor Derek Alderson, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS), has warned that NHS hospitals could face a ‘perfect storm’ of winter pressures, Brexit and the NHS pensions crisis, and urged the government to help the NHS get shipshape fast.

04 Oct 2019 The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS) Library has launched its first ever digital exhibition, Medicinae Plantae: healing plants through time. The exhibition is a collection of striking images from rare texts, such as Hortus Malabaricus by Hendrik van Rheede, which highlight the important role of herbalism in medical education from the late 15th up to the 19th century.